Strawberry Bubble Gum
by haveyounomercy
Summary: Marui gets into a rather difficult situation, and has to turn to Jirou for help. Very mild Sweet Pair. One-shot.


**A/N I guess this is for doro-chan, to prove that this spare brain of hers actually works by itself sometimes. Here's some Sweet Pair for you, my spare body.**

**By the way, let's ignore the little fact that Hyoutei students don't use the subway, ne?**

**Disclaimer: Not a chance.**

* * *

For the last god damn time, Marui does not eat bubble gum. Bubble gum is for _little children_ and _girls_. Marui is a very male teenager. Marui eats _Apple Flavoured Gum_. He is just so skilled at blowing bubbles that he has mastered the art of blowing gum bubbles. Marui is such a tensai that he can even blow bubbles out f Trident Spearmint Gum. Now that is skill.

Not even Atobe can do that. (Don't ask him though; he'd just dismiss you saying "Ore-sama does not amuse himself with such unbefitting habits of the common folk.")

So, you could say Marui was least to say, unpleased when he opened his locker on Valentines Day to see it jam-packed with bubble gum. One girl even went so far as to give him _strawberry_ bubble gum.

Shielding his eyes from the shrine of Hubba-Bubba-ness, Marui slammed shut his locker.

"What's wrong, are you upset you didn't get any chocolate?" From nowhere, Niou appeared behind Marui.

"I did so get chocolate. Look at that." Marui threw open his locker again. "Besides, its way more than you have." He eyed the armful of chocolate Niou was holding.

"Correction, I didn't see any chocolate in there, Marui-chan." Niou smirked. "I only see bubble gum."

"That's because…" Marui faltered, trying to think of a good comeback.

"That's because Marui-chan's a girl, and girls don't get chocolate on Valentines Day. Guess you'll just have to wait for White Day." Niou put his hand on Marui's shoulder pitifully.

"I am not a girl, you stupid old man!" Marui snapped and tried to pull on some of Niou's white hair.

"Ah, has the Fairy of Monthly Grumpiness come?" Niou chided as he ambled off snidely, chuckling to himself.

"I. Am. Not. A. Girl." Marui said through clenched teeth as he closed his locker yet again to find a team mate staring at him.

"And don't you forget that." Yukimura beamed.

"Y-yes." Marui said meekly. Inside, he seethed with anger. It was all that stupid Niou's fault. Now he looked like a retarded idiot in front of their beloved Yukimura-buchou.

"See you at practice." Yukimura smiled as he practically skipped off (in a very, very manly way, of course).

"I can't wait." Marui grumbled. His gum now felt all limp and bubble-less.

Ripping open a new pack, Marui popped a little green stick of gum in his mouth. After a few minutes of bubble-popping, he felt re-energized again.

With a tiny bounce in his step, he started off for his class.

* * *

Then _it_ happened.

"P-please accept this!" A shy, blushing girl forced a small box into his hands, and then promptly ran away.

It was like the rain before the storm.

As if it were some sort of trigger, suddenly he was flooded with girls shoving small boxes into his arms. Like a chain reaction, girl after girl came up to him, some even asking for a date.

With a reluctant smile, he turned them all down. When he finally got to his classroom, he was 10 minutes late.

And that was only half of the freshmen.

At lunch, Jackal studied the massive amount of chocolate Marui was happily unwrapping and eating.

"Can I have some?" He asked finally.

"Sure." Marui cheerfully dumped a pile into Jackal's lap. There were two reasons for this unexpected friendliness. One, he rather pitied Jackal, who only got two chocolates. Two, there was simply too much chocolate.

"Some of these are really good." Jackal murmured while biting into one particularly milky chocolate.

He looked up to see Marui turning down another girl, again.

"She was pretty. Actually, they all were." Jackal frowned after she had left.

"They weren't my type." Marui shrugged.

"You mean they weren't guys." Jackal raised an eyebrow.

"The heart wants what the heart wants." Marui smiled as he polished off the 16th box of chocolate. His lunch sat beside him, unopened.

"You do know that you'll have to give all these girls White Day gifts, right?" Jackal asked after some time.

"…You're joking." Marui, looking up from the 21st box, gave Jackal a horrified look.

"Sadly, no." Jackal shook his head as his eyes scanned over all the empty boxes lying around on their table.

"You're going got get sick." Jackal sighed.

"Oh, really?" Marui smirked as he cracked open the 22nd box.

* * *

Marui clutched his stomach in pain.

God, he was sick.

Paling considerably, he looked around on the almost-empty subway. It was all old people and couples.

Heaving himself out at a random stop, he ran as quickly as he could to the washrooms.

Under Construction.

He glared at the two words barricading him from his only hope.

Taking a glance around, he saw a grey uniform in the distance. A familiar crop of red hair bobbed up and down above the crowd and Marui sighed. It was his only chance left.

Springing on the Hyoutei player from behind, he smiled.

"Hey, Jirou-kun!"

"SUGOI!" Jirou almost screamed. "It's Marui! How did you know it was me? Do you have some kind of tracker thing?" His eyes opened wide.

"Look, I need a favour…" Marui bit his lip in pain.

"What is it? I'll do anything!" Jirou jumped up and down a little.

"Take. Me. To. Your. Toilet." Marui gripped Jirou's shoulders.

"But… My house is really far away…" Jirou frowned deeply.

"Aren't you rich? You have a car, right?" Marui pleaded.

"But Marui-kun… We're at a subway station. How can I have a car?" Jirou cocked his head.

"Dear Mother Of God." Marui prayed that he wouldn't scream. He wouldn't. He would. Not. Scream. It would seem like he was insane, or something.

"Jirou?" A deep voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Kabaji!" Jirou squealed as Marui swallowed to stare up at the towering 2nd year.

"What are you doing here?" Jirou asked, forgetting the task on hand.

"Errands." Kabaji held up dry cleaning that looked strangely like something that Atobe would wear.

"Oh." Jirou smiled. After being poked by Marui, his eyes opened wide.

"Kabaji, you live near here right? You can take us to your house really quick, right? Marui-kun needs to go to the bathroom reallllllll bad!" Jirou prodded excitedly.

"Usu." Kabaji took one look at Marui, sized him up, and then lifted him up without even a slight grunt.

"Let's go!" Jirou followed them happily.

"Usu."

Screw sanity. Marui screamed his lungs out.

* * *

"Marui-kun, are you finished yet?" Jirou asked through the door for the 12th time. Not that Marui had been counting or anything.

For the first time, Marui responded. "Yes." He said weakly as he gave one final flush and moved to the sink.

"Sugoi!" Came the much anticipated answer.

"Thanks for all your help." Marui said to Kabaji and Jirou as he came out of the dreaded washroom.

"No problem!" Jirou assured.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go home…" Marui said wearily.

"Nope, you can't, no yet!" Jirou jumped in his way. "Guess what day it is today, Marui-kun!"

"Valentines Day." How could he forget?

"Awesome! I was just going to Rikkai Dai to give you this! Happy Valentines Day!" Jirou pressed a small rectangular shaped thing into Marui's hands gently.

"Thanks." Marui looked down.

It was a stack of Hubba-Bubba extra chewy strawberry bubble gum.

He looked up.

Wide eyes full of questioning and innocence stared up at him. For a few seconds, Marui felt himself stare into them stupidly.

Tearing himself away, he looked back down at the horrifying pink gift.

"I love it, it's my favourite flavour!" Marui smiled brightly, inwardly cringing as he put the disgusting thing in his mouth.

"Really?" Jirou asked hopefully.

"Yup." Marui felt himself ruffling Jirou's hair. Blowing a huge bubble to cover the slight blush on his cheeks, he noticed that Jirou's hair was really, really soft.

"Awesome!" Jirou was ecstatic.

"Now, I really should be going…" Marui said sadly after a few minutes of idle chatting.

"Oh, okay." Jirou pouted as he asked Kabaji to lead them to the door.

"Don't worry; I'll get you something on White Day." Marui heard himself say before he could stop himself.

"Okay!" Jirou brightened up immediately.

Marui found himself lost for a few seconds in those child-like orbs again. Blinking a few times and popping a few bubbles, he finally started walking.

"Bye, Marui-kun!" Jirou waved.

"Bye, Jirou-kun, see you on White Day!" Marui smiled as he waved back. Sometimes, maybe bubble gum was better than the sweetest of chocolates.

**Omake**

"Eh, Marui-chan, have you really awakened to your inner girl?" Niou quirked an eyebrow.

"Shut up, Niou." Marui glared before unwrapping a new stick of strawberry bubble gum.

"Jesus Christ. Don't go all grumpy on me; it's not my fault you got your period."

Niou soon found himself with a wad of bright pink bubble gum stuck in his hair.


End file.
